Wage hike worries workers

All of them earn less than Bt300 daily, the minimum wage the Pheu Thai Party has promised the new government will introduce.

Pien, 45, a cleaner, earns Bt255 a day. Piyanut Suwannahong, 39, a factory worker, gets about Bt243. Sawai Klangyoon, 48, a worker at a construction-materials shop, is paid Bt200. Lamduan Chaichalard, 38, a construction worker, gets only Bt180.

Pien, a single mother, takes care of three children. One is unemployed and the other two are at high school. As well, she pays Bt2,200 per month to rent their apartment.

"My studying children and I need Bt180 a day, while my unemployed 16-year-old son spends Bt20. At weekends I cook only in the morning, which costs Bt70 to Bt80 a day, and we eat the same food in our three meals. This is how we reduce our expenses," she said.

Piyanut lives with her mother. She gives her mother Bt1,000 and pays Bt700 land rent every month. She makes about Bt7,300 per month, or as much as Bt8,000 or Bt12,000 if she works overtime.

She wants to buy a house, which will cost her up to Bt500,000, so she keeps her spending down to between Bt20 and Bt60 per day. She tries to bring cooked food from home for lunch and waits for free buses to save money.

"I set aside Bt3,000 before paying other expenses because I want to buy a house," Piyanut said.

Lamduan comes from Kalasin. Her husband is sick, so she has become the family's breadwinner. She sends Bt2,000 back home to her mother and husband every month.

"I spend Bt140 to Bt150 to buy food each day. Food is more expensive now. My income is too little. It is not enough to cover my expenses sometimes, so I borrow from my friends.

Although I work overtime, my daily wage still doesn't reach Bt300," she said.

Sawai can't earn extra money because he doesn't get overtime.

He spends Bt3,000 a month on his personal expenses, and sends his wife in Nakhon Phanom between Bt3,000 and Bt3,500. They have a child at primary school.

"Sometimes, the money I send them is not enough," he said.

All of the group welcome the Pheu Thai Party's plan to increase the minimum daily wage to Bt300, but are concerned that it will force food and commodity prices up and bring job losses.

"If prices are going to increase, you [the new government] should not increase my wage. It will cause me trouble, calculating higher wages and higher expenses.

"It will be difficult for me to manage," Pien said.

Sawai is worried that his employer will lay off some workers and he will be one of them.

Piyanut and Lamduan said that if commodity and food prices are not controlled, their lives would be the same - Bt300 per day or not.